Dubai stocks hit 55-month high

Dubai Financial Market general index broke above a major technical resistance and hit a fresh 55-month high on Sunday, as mid-cap stocks surged on the back of positive economic data and speculations about upcoming market upgrade. Investors and traders tend to believe that MSCI will elevate the United Arab Emirates to emerging market status from frontier territory when the annual index reclassification is unveiled on June 11th. Read more

Investors would remain overweight in UAE, Saudi

Global index developer MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) will announce in mid-June whether or not it will upgrade the UAE to ‘emerging market’ from the current ‘frontier market’, a move which would force fund managers to increase their equity exposures in the Gulf state.

Prior to this action GEM funds are shifting flows to the MENA region, where UAE remained so far underestimated. Read more

Aldar, Sorouh shares will continue trading upward today

Shares of Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate surged in heavy trading yesterday, by 12.9% and 11.7% respectively. This is close to their daily upward limit of 15%, which is higher than in Dubai where the limit is 10%. The both property developers were for many years top performers on ADX and favorite market leaders to local investors and traders. Read more

International markets record more loses on weak economic data

The decision comes with all kinds of risks, but Bank of Japan Leader Haruhiko Kuroda’s goal was to achieve a rate of inflation at 2 percent for Japan’s sluggish economy. The country has experienced a stagnant economy and falling prices in the last two decades. Falling prices hurt the country because companies are less likely to invest and citizens don’t want to spend money. Moreover, Japan has seen its export sector decline. Read more

GCC Markets Performance in March 2013

· All GCC markets, except the UAE, ended in the green

· Kuwait led the rally, with a 4.0%MoM gain, followed by Saudi Arabia

· Trading activity increased on MoM basis

· IPO activity remained subdued

GCC markets on a rise – UAE backtracks
GCC equity performance remained mixed in March. All bourses, except ADX and Dubai, gained during the month. The KSE index experienced the highest growth of 4.0%MoM amongst GCC markets. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index, the second best performer, rose 1.8%MoM. Dubai was the worst performer (down 5.1%MoM) amongst GCC markets, Oman and Bahrain experienced a marginal growth of 0.6%MoM, 0.2%MoM and 0.2%MoM, respectively, in March.

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UAE bourse emerges star Arab performer

The UAE bourses emerged as the star performers in the Arab world in the first few weeks of 2013, with the markets of Abu Dhabi and Dubai gaining more than $4 billion to offset a decline in most other regional exchanges. Read more

GCC Markets Performance in February 2013

GCC were unstable in February; TASI consolidated under 7,000
Highest MoM gains belongs to Abu Dhabi and Kuwait
Trading activity withdraws on MoM basis
Activity of IPO still muted
GCC Market Unstable, But Outlook is Promising

Reports show that global equity markets did not have a stable performance this February. That is due to the fact the investors acted with more cautiousness despite that 2013 started promisingly. The positive trend continued during the entire January. However, it greatly slowed down after investors became less active and more observing when it came to the possible adoption of a plan for spending reduction. The plan is called Sequestration and it is estimated to cost $85 billion. In addition, investors were also cautions because of the growth issues in the Eurozone and China. In February, the lack of commitment of the Federal Reserve towards the quantitative easing program made investors even less optimistic. In the meantime, PMI (the Purchasing Managers’ Index of the Eurozone) dropped and put an end of the positive tendency of the last couple of months. Last month, the Dow Industrial Average accumulated 1.4% and FTSE100 increased with 1.3%. In addition, GCC markets managed to witness only tiny profits. Read more

Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange to List Private Firms

The Abu Dhabi stock exchange is looking to list some of the emirate’s large private companies to help boost liquidity on the bourse and ensure its benchmark index better reflects the economy, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Roadshows for the listings are planned later this year in the Gulf and in London to attract more investors into Abu Dhabi, Rashed al-Baloushi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADX), told reporters. Read more

Property stocks push DFM to key psychological level

On Monday, the real estate stocks listed on the Dubai Financial Market opened higher.This move supported the bourse advance toward the psychological level of nearly 2,000 points. In the beginning of the week, market was propelled by investor’s hopes for strong dividends. Read more

2013 outlook for MENA markets cautiously optimistic

• Investor confidence returns as real estate market slightly rebounds and tourism booms
• Institutional volumes grow, with Mubasher posting Year-on-Year volume growth of 56% (UAE), 47% (KSA), 156% (Bahrain), 334% (Egypt) and 536% in Europe

Most regional markets continued their positive start to the year, with some analysts confident that 2013 will see markets return to more stable ground than at any time in the past five years. However, analysts have cautioned that it would be unrealistic to expect pre-crisis highs. Read more

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